TEXACO GAS STATIONS

The old-style Texaco gas stations, the ones that
were painted white with forest-green streamline stripes and a
free-standing post bearing the red Texaco star logo on a white disk, were
designed by Walter Dorwin Teague (also known for designing the Kodak Brownie camera and a host of other streamlined artifacts). In his book "Design
This Day"
(1940) Teague shows his original work for Texaco, the exhibition hall
he designed for them at the Texas Centennial fair in 1935, plus
photos of the small gas stations which were built
cookie-cutter-like all over America.

It is clear from the text and illustrations in "Design This Day"
that Teague was well-versed in the principles of sacred geometry and had been deeply influenced
by the writing of Jay Hambidge (author of the 1925 book "The
Parthenon and Other Greek Temples, Their Dynamic Symmetry"), which he cited repeatedly.

I first read "Design This Day" during the early 1970s. Studying
the text and looking at the pictures, i became convinced that
Teague's two basic Texaco gas station plans, small and large, had been
based on the root-5 rectangle, the same basis used for the
Partheon's proportions, and that he did this to show off to best
advantage the Texaco logo -- a 5-pointed star -- because that
form of star is subtly keyed to the root-5 rectangle.

Despite my certainty, Teague's written allusions to the geometric
relationship between the star, the root-5 rectangle, the
Parthenon, and his own gas station designs were so slight that
until the late 1970s, i thought i might be mistaken. But sure enough,
the building's windows seem indeed to be root-5 rectangles, and the entire facade looks as if it were based on
root-5 geometry. Good for Walter Dorwin Teague -- and a
nasty snarl to the faceless corporate overlords who caused all
his work to be undone when they remodelled the facades of the
company's remaining Teague-designed stations in the 1980s and
1990s and then painted them a hellish charcoal grey and red.

Today your only chance of seeing an original Texaco station facade is to
find one that was sold off to a private owner before the stations
were remodelled. Typically these buildings are now the home of
car body shops, small used car dealerships, or junk stores. The Texaco
colour scheme will have been repainted, but the stations are
identifiable by the three streamlines along the roof canopy and
by the presence of the free-standing circular sign.

A further note on the 5-pointed Texaco star logo: This is, of course, the
so-called "Texas Star," which appears on the state's flag, and
hence it was a logical logo design for a gasoline company based in
Texas...but there is more to it than that.

The Republic of Texas was founded in the 1830s by a group of Freemasons (Austin,
Houston, Travis, Bowie, Crockett et al). At that time the
well-known Masonic symbol of a square and compasses surrounding
the letter G had not yet replaced the older Masonic symbol of a
square and compasses surrounding a 5-pointed star. This star,
called by Masons the "Blazing Star," is said to represent the
Great Architect of the Universe, namely, the creator-god. (This
older symbol of a square and compasses with a Blazing Star is
still a preferred Masonic emblem in Europe and in American Co-Masonry.) Due to the
fraternal connections of the founders of the Republic of Texas,
it is highly likely that the use of the Masonic star as the
emblem of their new nation was intentional. When Texas became a
state in the United States, it retained the same flag it had had
as a republic. Thus, whether or not the owners of the Texaco
company knew it, they were carrying a Masonic emblem for the
Great Architect of the Universe across the nation with their gas
stations.

Did Walter Dorwin Teague know that the Teaxas star that became
the Texaco star was ultimately the Masonic star when he designed
the Texaco stations according to the principles of that worthy
"brother of Masonry," Pythagoras?

To put it more bluntly: Was Walter Dorwin Teague a Freemason?

No evidence remains and i have been unable to find a clue in
Teague's writing -- but my good friend Barrance C. Lespine did ascertain that Teague's
close friend and colleague, the architectural draftsman Hugh
Ferriss, was indeed a Mason and worked on the plans for a number
of Masonic projects, and that this must have been known to
Teague because Ferris was so public about it.

Any further information on the possible Freemasonic affiliations of
the founders of Texaco or of Walter Dorwin Teague would be
greatly appreciated.